The subject matter described and/or illustrated herein relates generally to electrical connectors, and more particularly, to electrical connectors that are configured to receive and communicatively engage an edge of a mating connector.
Various communication or computing systems use electrical connectors for transmitting data signals between different components of the systems. For example, some electrical connectors may be configured to receive an edge of an electrical component having component contacts located therealong. The electrical connectors may include housing cavities having opposing rows of mating contacts. When the edge is advanced into the housing cavity of the electrical connector, the edge moves between the opposing rows of mating contacts. The component contacts electrically engage the mating contacts in the housing cavity.
Electrical connectors such as those described above may be manufactured by molding a housing with holes and then inserting the mating contacts through corresponding holes. Alternatively, the housing may be directly molded around the rows of mating contacts so that each mating contact is held in place by molded material that surrounds the mating contact. However, such electrical connectors may have certain limitations. For example, mating contacts that have shapes or dimensions that predispose the mating contacts to deformation may be inadvertently bent when inserted into the hole. Furthermore, molding the housing around the mating contacts may be costly as compared to other manufacturing methods. In some cases, the above manufacturing methods may limit a manufacturer's ability to design electrical connectors with improved performance.
Moreover, the holes of the housing include retention sections that are engaged by retention segments of the mating contacts to hold the mating contacts within the holes. The retention sections of the holes must be large enough to enable mating segments of the mating contacts to pass through the retention sections as the mating contacts are loaded into the holes. The retention segments of the mating contacts therefore need to have a size that is large enough to span (i.e., fill) the retention sections of the holes and thereby securely engage the housing. But, such a size of the retention segments may negatively affect the electrical characteristics of the mating contacts. For example, such a size of the retention segments may degrade the integrity of signals transmitted through the mating contacts and/or may cause electrical discontinuities, such as, but not limited to, reflections, impedance differences, electrical stubs, etc.
Accordingly, there is a need for electrical connectors that provide good electrical performance and are easy to manufacture at relatively low cost.